Lukyan Barsukov

Lukyan Barsukov (1943-) was a Russian Mafia boss. Known as "the Godfather of Russia", Barsukov was the most powerful crime boss to emerge in the aftermath of the fall of the USSR.

Biography
Lukyan Barsukov was born in Stalingrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now known as Volgograd, Russia) in 1943, and he became a criminal during his teenage years. Barsukov was in and out of prison during his teenage years and his twenties, and he became involved with the criminal elite of the USSR, the "thieves-in-law". During the 1970s, he became a boss of the black market and protection racket in Moscow, and his power grew during the capitalist Perestroika reforms of the 1980s. The brutal Barsukov became known as the "Russian Godfather" during the 1990s, and he rose to become the most powerful Russian Bratva boss in the world. In 1998, his daughter married rising criminal Maxim Kutkin, and Kutkin attempted to have Barsukov killed so that he could take over his family. However, Barsukov assisted the Rainbow counterterrorist team in thwarting his son-in-law's plans, and Kutkin was killed in a counterterrorist operation in 2002. Barsukov was granted immunity by the Rainbow team, and he inherited Kutkin's mansion, telling the operatives that he was leaving his life of crime.